Idem ib. Footnote 290: Pears. posth. p. 91, 92. Bosquet. l. 3. c. 5. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SEVERUS, ZEPHYRINUS, MACRINUS, CARACALLA, _Fourteenth_ BISHOP _of_ Rome. DIADUMENUS, GETA, HELIOGABALUS. [Sidenote: Year of Christ 201. _A dreadful Persecution against the Christians._] In the first Year of the Pontificate of _Zephyrinus_, who succeeded _Victor_, a dreadful Persecution was raised against the Christians by the Emperor _Severus_, and carried on with great Cruelty in all Parts of the Empire. _Zephyrinus_, however, had the good Luck to escape it, and to see the Church, by the Death of that Prince, happily delivered from the Evils, which the Rage of her foreign Enemies had brought upon her. [Sidenote: Zephyrinus _opposes the_ Theodotian _Heretics_.] But her domestic Enemies gave her no Respite; the _Theodotian_ Heretics continued sowing, and not without Success, their pestilential Errors at _Rome_. _Zephyrinus_, it seems, opposed them with great Vigour and Zeal; for they reproached him, as we read in _Eusebius_[291], as the first who had betrayed the Truth, by maintaining against them the Divinity of _Christ_: hence he is ranked, by _Optatus_, with _Tertullian_, _Victorinus_, &c. among those who have successfully defended the Catholic Church[292]. _Baronius_, to extol _Zephyrinus_, ascribes to him the first Condemnation of _Praxeas_[293], which was followed by a solemn Retractation under his own Hand. But it was in _Africa_, and not at _Rome_, that _Praxeas_ was condemned, as appeared plain to me, from the Words of _Tertullian_[294], before I had seen either _Pamelius_ or _Moreau_, who understood them in that Sense. _Praxeas_, as we have observed above, had done an eminent Piece of Service to the Church of _Rome_, by reclaiming Pope _Victor_ from the Heresy of _Montanus_: but the Good he had done on that Occasion was over-balanced by the Mischief his new Heresy occasioned both at _Rome_ and in _Africa_; for in both Places he gained many Proselytes. [Sidenote: _The Heresy of_ Praxeas.] He denied all Distinction of Persons in the Godhead, so that the Father being, according to his Doctrine, the same Person with the Son, it was he who took upon him human Nature, and suffered on the Cross; whence his Followers were called _Patropassians_[295]. [Sidenote: Origen _at_ Rome.]